The washburn has been added to over this summer. There are 2 new playholes right down at the bottom of the site. Just after the small hole/wave thingy theat used to mark the start of the flat section down to the road bridge. The top one of the 2 is good for ends and loops and all the way across.

TomWardill wrote:I'm there doing safety for the BUSA WWR at the end of this month, are you still after some updated photos?

Yes, please! The Washburn was probably going to be the next update I was going to do, so will hold fire until you send the pics to me. Drop me a pm for an email address, rather than going through Mark.

Just a quick update regarding a change spotted between published versions of the calendar.

The Washburn Committee wrote:

Rutpaddle wrote:Last Canoe Focus had 25th Jan as well - has that been cancelled?

Cheers, Jules

Not Sure on this one Rutpaddle. I will contact Esther and update here as I find out.

Cheers

Matt

Thanks for bringing this one to our attention Jules.

The release that was planned for the 25th of Jan had to be moved to the 1st Feb due to the individual expected to run it being unavailable. We are sorry if this has created any confusion. The current calender can therefore be considered accurate.

Hopefully having the calender available online here will enable us to keep on top of just such changes so that they have minimal impact on users of the Washburn.

I haven't been to the Wasburn since all the new additions. Is all the work finished now? Can someone summarise exactly what has been added where. Any photos of the new features would also be useful for an update to the existing guide.

Jim Pullen wrote:I haven't been to the Wasburn since all the new additions. Is all the work finished now? Can someone summarise exactly what has been added where. Any photos of the new features would also be useful for an update to the existing guide.

Thanks!

The changes are great.

I'm not sure if works finished, I'm not in the know. It seems pritty much finished, theres no diggers on sight anyway!

Firstly of all, there is a much improved ramp for getting in. The river is the same up until the 'big drop'. The pool has become deeper, as they have backed up the pool below more. The feature is still flushy and not really many moves are possible. Eddy service isn't great, but with a quick role, you shouldn't have to many issues. About 70m down stream there is a new get out area with big-ish eddies either side of the river. From here down is where the changes are mainly. Theres new bigger eddies by certain features, and they have reated about 3/4 extra river wide features. One decent looping pool type drop and two other fast clean waves. Again eddy service isn't great, but thats just the style of river. I'm sure some of the ROHO boys or other decent freestyle paddlers will be able to give a better description of what the actual features are like for 'playboating'...there not deep enough to loop a Jefe Grande though ;-)

Check out this album. Use any if you like for the Guide Jim. Shows the section from the dam, to the 'big drop'.

Finally made it down to the Washburn this Sunday and was impressed with the new features. As Rick says there's at least 4 (maybe 5?) new river-wide features below the normal get-out for walking back up. These all seemed to be more playable than the features further upstream. Admittedly, I was only in a H3 and am completely rubbish at this play-boating marlarky, so surfing and flat-spins were pretty much all I achieved. At least one of the features seemed pretty deep as I managed to completely bury the nose and perform the biggest intentional pop-out I've ever achieved - sick(!)

With this and the barrage up-grade I may even be tempted to purchase a playboat...

Can I put in a request for a conveyor belt on the next upgrade please? Either that or a team of sherpas?